Investigation of the Persuasiveness of Social Influence in Persuasive Technology and the Effect of Age and Gender

Research has shown that social influence is a strong motivator of behavior change. However, in persuasive technology research, limited studies exist showing the influence of age and gender on its effectiveness. To bridge this gap, we conducted a study among 323 participants on the level of susceptibility to four social influence strategies: Social Learning, Social Comparison, Competition and Reward. Our results reveal that 1) males and females vary in their level of susceptibility to Reward and Competition, with males being more susceptible than females; and 2) younger and older individuals vary also, with younger individuals being more susceptible to Competition, Social Comparison and Social Learning. Specifically, our results reveal that Competition, a powerful driver of intrinsic motivation, is most effective in bringing about behavior change in younger males, but least effective in older females. These findings provide designers with insight into effective ways of tailoring persuasive applications (using commonly applied gamification mechanics) based on age and gender.